Student's Thesis Wins Oscar
Lauren DeAngelis, MA '08, beat competitors from some of the country's top film programs to win an Oscar for A Place to Land, her thesis documentary that follows the cross-country journey of abused or abandoned parrots, once in captivity. A second SOC student, Joe Bohannon, Director of Cinematography and Sound Technician for the film, was interviewed by NBC about the documentary. This is the second consecutive year that a student from American University's School of Communication (SOC) has won an Oscar for documentary from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Laura Waters Hinson, MFA '07, won a Student Oscar last year for As We Forgive, a documentary about reconciliation efforts in Rwanda.
Hinson appeared on The Diane Rehm Show to discuss her film, which won the Gold Medal for Documentary at the 2008 Student Academy Awards. As We Forgive follows three Rwandan genocide survivors as they face the men who killed their families. Watch the trailer or read a Washington Post profile of Hinson.